The passing away of Padmini brings to an end the last of what was popularly referred to as ‘Travancore sisters’. They were colossal figures in 50s and 60s, particularly the pair of Padmini-Ragini. I recollect in my childhood when the pair was ever mentioned it created lots of excitement around. Padmini was top actress in all the four major south Indian language as also in Hindi (at one point), enviable achievement not matched yet. Further she was a polyglot and could speak most langauge!!. Her Hindi movies we
re also watched with lots of interest by elders when it used to come in TV. More than an actor wherein she was stupendously popular she was known for her dancing skills in classical forms (she was an accomplished Bharthanatyam dancer). It wouldn’t be farfetched to say that Padmini apart from Yjenthimala (not able to get the spellings!!) was largely responsible for introducing classical dance form into Hindi movies, and with that to north Indian mainstream entertainment. I particularly enjoyed watching ‘Kalpana’, an extravagant experimental dance-movie by Uday Shankar troupe, few years back (with Pt. Ravi Shankar...in audience, offcourse!!). What a grand way to start a career!!. Just brilliant. Incidentally her cousin Sukumari (in malayalam) and niece Shobana are also very popular.
Since she was active much before my generation so my favourite performance of her is from later part, as an old lady in Malayalam movie ‘Noka Dhoorathu’. Infact it is one of my favourite movie particularly the songs.
